A great many systems have been devised over the years for dispensing paper toweling from rolls thereof. Many of these systems employ rotatable feed rollers which engage the toweling and direct the toweling to a position exterior of a cabinet or housing for delivery to the consumer. A wide variety of mechanisms have been devised to cause and control rotation of the feed roller as well as severance of the individual towel sheets from the toweling unwound from the roll.
With respect to feed roller actuation and rotation, the use of one-way clutch mechanisms is not uncommon, such mechanisms being utilized to ensure rotation of feed rollers in only one direction of rotation upon actuation of the dispenser mechanism by the consumer. The purpose of such mechanism is, of course, to ensure that the feed roller will only operate to feed the toweling out of the housing and not back toward the supply roll. One-way clutches, while effective for their intended purpose, can add considerably to the cost of paper towel dispensers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,442, issued Mar. 1, 1980, discloses an approach aimed at elimination of a conventional one-way clutch in the form of a floating or displaceable gear which is operable to disengage the actuator structure from the feed roller structure of a paper towel dispenser after a consumer has caused delivery of a towel to dispensing position.
Our co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/164,440 is directed to apparatus which utilizes a relatively inexpensive structural arrangement as a substitute for conventional one-way clutch mechanisms to efficiently, reliably and effectively dispense sheet material from a roll of sheet material through use of a rotatable sheet material feed roller. Furthermore, the invention encompasses a unique approach for automatically introducing the lead end of sheet material such as paper toweling into the transport or feed mechanism (including the rotatable feed roller) responsive to depletion of another roll.
The apparatus of the above-referenced co-pending application includes a housing defining an interior for accommodating a roll of sheet material and additionally defining a sheet material outlet communicating with the interior.
A rotatable sheet material engagement member is provided for engaging sheet material unwound from a roll of sheet material within the housing interior.
The apparatus also includes sheet material feed means positioned adjacent to the rotatable sheet material engagement member including a rotatable sheet material feed roller and a support member supporting the sheet material feed roller.
The support member is pivotally mounted relative to the housing to selectively alternatively move the sheet material feed roller toward or away from the rotatable sheet material engagement member.
Means is incorporated in the apparatus for rotating the sheet material feed roller to transport sheet material engaged by the rotatable sheet material engagement member toward the sheet material outlet after the sheet material feed roller has moved toward the rotatable sheet material engagement member.
A single tucker member is connected to the rotatable sheet material engagement member, the tucker member responsive to rotational movement of the rotatable sheet material engagement member to move toward a location between the sheet material feed roller and the rotatable sheet material engagement member to tuck the lead end of a roll of sheet material between the sheet material feed roller and the rotatable sheet material engagement member. The tucker member is elongated and of unitary construction, extending from one side of the housing to the other side thereof. This form of tucker member has been found to have some deficiencies. For example, there can be interference with loading rolls in the dispenser. Furthermore, the elongated tucker member is somewhat susceptible to breakage because it extends the length of the rotatable sheet material engagement member. These and other problems are remedied by the present invention.
Numerous other systems have been devised over the years for effecting transfer between a roll being depleted during paper towel dispensing to a reserve roll. The following patents disclose dispensers which are considered to be representative of the state of the prior art in the field of the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,743, issued Dec. 21, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,442, issued Mar. 11, 1980, U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,552, issued Jun. 27, 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,412, issued Jul. 11, 1989, U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,192, issued Mar. 15, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 1,025,312, issued May 7, 1912, U.S. Pat. No. 1,026,128, issued May 14, 1912, U.S. Pat. No. 1,084,598, issued Jan. 20, 1914, U.S. Pat. No. 1,860,668, issued May 31, 1932, U.S. Pat. No. 2,169,399, issued Aug. 15, 1939, U.S. Pat. No. 2,930,664, issued Mar. 29, 1960, U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,636, issued Oct. 25, 1960, U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,957, issued Oct. 22, 1963, U.S. Pat. No. 3,140,060, issued Jul. 7, 1964, U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,304, issued Oct. 13, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,485, issued Jul. 12, 1988, British Patent Specification No. 794,825, Published May 14, 1958, British Patent Specification No. 1,114,891, Published Mar. 11, 1965.
Such patents do not disclose the invention described and claimed herein.